MDMD(NA): Epic Invocations of Muse; Pynchon & Milton

[Eric Alan Weinstein]

At certain points in M&D, which deserves to be called an Epic novel,
Pynchon gives us these incredible breathy poetic sentences. The
Snow-Ball(s) start of the novel is clearly one example, but the entrance
to Cape Town at the start of chapter seven is another, and the entrance
to America at the start of part 2 is another. There are more.

These are Pynchon's invocations to his Muse, no?  I remember 
upon first reading Milton the joy of coming across his invocations 
and exploring the nature of the Miltonic muse, within what  I thought
of as proto-romantic lyric poems within his epic.  I wonder, as we move
through the novel and examine these lyric poems within Pynchon's poetic
prose-whole  (both individually and hopefully with reference to each other)
what we might discover about the nature of Pynchon's muse? 

Eric



Eric Alan Weinstein
E.A.Weinstein at qmw.ac.uk